Operation: Stag & Doe
by oswiins
Summary: "She hated him!" "Nah, she didn't." A collection of one shots based on my favourite pairing, the stag and the doe.
1. a warm brew

i. a warm brew

The dim light of the bar shone through, illuminating the dust on the dining tables, which, speaking the truth wasn't that good of a thing, but the light was good enough for Lily. She held _The Theory of Transfiguration: Advanced_ closer to her eyes, and found a few fingers pulling the book away.

"Mum!" She protested, putting down the book on the table, and staring at the older redheaded woman opposite her.

Her mother smiled at her, placing her chin on her hand. "Honey, reading that close to your eyes isn't very good for your health!" Lily chuckled, and looked down at her glass of butterbeer. She lifted it up and took a sip of the sweet rich flavour that was her favourite drink in the whole world.

"Hey, Evans! You've got a moustache!" A familiar voice accompanied the small clunk of her glass hitting the table.

Lily reached towards her mouth and smeared away the butterbeer above it with a tissue. "Thank you, Potter." She grumbled. Funny how she hated saying that but finding that sometimes that she just had to.

"Lily, is this your friend?" Her mother asked, looking between the two of them.

Before Lily could open her mouth to reply, Potter did it for her. "Yes, Mrs. Evans. I'm James, James Potter. Me and Lily are both in Gryffindor. And in the same year." He said, holding his hand out for her mother to shake.

"Oh, I think I've heard about you once or twice." Lily's mother said, giving a slight nod to her daughter.

James ruffled his already messy hair and smiled, "All good things I hope."

Her mother chuckled slightly and opened her mouth to speak. Lily immediately knew what her mother was going to say, so before her mother could ask James to sit down, she stood up. The sound of her chair screeching against the stone floor made her flinch. She turned towards the boy, searched for words, and found that there wasn't any for her to say, then addressed her mother. "Mum, can me and Potter go outside to have a chat about the homework that professor McGonagall assigned us over the holidays?" She asked, trying, and succeeding in a smile. "Go ahead," Her mother answered.

Lily took hold of Potter's wrist and dragged him outside to the streets of London. James seemed to like it, as he was grinning ear to ear while Lily studied him, hands crossed.

"It's my mum in there, so please be civilised, Potter. Anyway, why did you have to just decide to talk to us in the first place?"

James laughed at her, and rocked backwards on the balls of his feet, crossing his arms in front of his chest, mimicking her actions. Realising this, Lily thrust her hands into the air, and let them fall loudly by her waist. When he stopped laughing, his mouth remained in the shape of a smile, although, only the right half of his mouth was tilted up. Lily rolled her eyes to the fact that she even noticed that.

"Come on, Evans, I'm not here to cause mischief." He said, leaning back to the wall of the leaky cauldron.

"Says everyone who ever cause mischief." Lily replied, placing her hands on her hips. "Fine then, just come in, don't you dare say something inappropriate to my mother." She stared up at the boy, her eyes bulging rather comically. Red hair swishing as she entered the leaky cauldron, James following her.

Before they could even sit down, Lily's mother stood up and announced that her father had just came and said that he wanted to go out and try an ice cream with her and it was okay for her to stay and continue to finish reading. Lily had protested, but her mother told her to stay and that she deserved to spend some time outside of Hogwarts to have fun with her friends.

Disgruntled, Lily sat down. What she did not expect was James sitting down beside her.

"What are you doing here, Potter?" After she opened the textbook once more, and noticing that the annoying person had not walked away. "Wait, I meant to say, what are you still doing here. You came to Diagon Alley to shop, right? Why don't you?"

"Sirius went for me. He should be back any minute. Besides," He propped his elbow on the table, and used his hand to hold his chin, which was attached to his very big head. "I like looking at you."

"Well, that's creepy."

Lily tried to turn her attention onto her book, but kept seeing the brown eyes of James Potter staring at her from above the pages of the book. "This isn't working." She muttered under her breath, not clear enough for Potter to hear her.

Just when she decided that she had enough of all the staring, she looked up from her book, opened her mouth and was about to tell him off, when another annoying person appeared in the corners of her eye.

"Hey, James. Got your books. Well, I'm pretty sure I didn't bring them all, but wormtail's carrying most of them, so I think we'll just have to wait a few more minutes. Oh, hey Evans." Sirius said, dumping a stack of seven books on the table.

"Hello Black, good to see you here. It seems that you do everything together right?" She said, putting her book down once again, she was thinking that this might be the last time she was going to do this today.

Sirius winked at her, "Of course, Evans. Me and James coming to Diagon Alley is definitely because we love each other platonically not because I live with him." The two of them laughed.

"You live together?" Lily asked, her green eyes widened in surprise.

"Only temporarily. Padfoot's moving out next year." James replied, the smile vanishing slightly.

Sirius must have noticed this for he said to him, teasing in his tone, "You mustn't miss me too much. And if you don't, please don't take revenge on me, Prongs. Don't put me in detention."

"Detention? Can he? Is there something that I don't know about?" These two were full of surprises, thought Lily, as she looked between the two of them.

"Oh yeah, I'm surprised Moony didn't tell you. James has been made the new head boy of Hogwarts, the only thing that we're wondering is who the new head girl will be." Sirius replied. James seemed to be holding back a smile, but failing to do so once a smirk grew on his face. Lily couldn't hold it against him, he earned it. Although she couldn't really agree on Dumbledore's choice of the next head boy, she thought it would be Remus.

The confusion must've settled on her face when Sirius stared at her reproachfully.

To break the awkwardness between them, Lily said, "Well, I guess it's time for you guys to stop wondering who it is. It's me."

There was a few seconds pause as the two boys stopped to process the information. Then the moment was over. James started clapping slowly, and Sirius smirked. "I told you Padfoot, didn't I tell you? It was rightfully hers!" James said, clapping his best friend on the back.

Lily could feel her heart clench when she heard this sentence.

The three of them jumped when they heard a loud crash beside the wall that opened up to Diagon Alley.

Sirius moved out of his seat, and so did James. "Well, I think we need to give wormtail there a hand. Goodbye, Evans." Sirius said, already walking towards the little guy was fumbling with dozens of books in his arms. "Bye, Sirius. See you, I suppose." She said, and looked up at James. He smiled, and waved goodbye at her. She did the same. Her eyes never left him as he went forward to help Peter pick up the books.

She picked up the glass and took another sip, wiped her mouth just in case, and praying to Merlin that no one will interrupt her reading again, picked up her book and started reading again.


	2. hiccups

**A/N: Written for:**

 **Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry (Challenges & Assignments)**

 **Fun With Fishing Challenge - Coffee Shop AU & Marshmallow**

 **Writing Club -** **Days of the Month - Serendipity Day: write about a chance encounter  
** **Happiness Happens - 5. (phrase) smiley face**

 **Gobstones Club - Yellow Stone: First Love. Prompts: A2 (word) refreshing, P8 (object) Witch Weekly Magazine, T7 (weather) rainy**

 **HPFC  
** **Ultimate AU Promptation Challenge - Coffee Shop AU**

* * *

 **ii.** **hiccups**

The first time that Lily met James outside of school was not fun. But it was something to laugh about.

It was a week after leaving Hogwarts, Lily was sitting in a chair by a wooden table, a cup of coffee in her left hand and a new issue of Witch Weekly in the other. Rain thumped on the window next to her, and eventually it became a minor buzz in Lily's ears. A muggle waitress came before her and laid a plate of muffins on the table. The girl looked a little puzzled at the magazine in Lily's hands, because to her Lily was holding a piece of a textbook.

"Thank you," said Lily, looking up at her. And the waitress walked away.

The redhead turned back to the piece in her hand.

A few minutes later, she finished reading, and laid the magazine on the table, and picked up her coffee cup to take a sip of it. And that is when she saw the face peering at her from the window. Lily was so shocked that she spilled some of her coffee.

The grinning face of James Potter was pressed against the window beside her, and evidently he didn't care much for the rain.

"What are you doing here?" Lily mouthed.

James just grinned brighter.

Lily rolled her eyes.

Since the window was already cover in mist thanks to the humidity that was brought on by the rain, James used his finger to draw a smiley face on the window. Then he drew the expression on his own face. James looked up at the sky and decided that it would be better to get in the building, so he walked over to the entrance of the coffee shop and walked in, the bell ringing as he stepped onto the mat.

"Lily!" he exclaimed, his hands in his pockets as he strutted towards her. "How nice to see you!"

Lily didn't feel like it was good to see him. She placed the cup back down on the table and glared at him as he walked over and plopped himself down on the seat opposite her.

A few of the other guests in the shop turned towards them and stared. Lily thought she caught the phrase 'young love' bouncing through the crowd.

"What are you doing here?" asked Lily once again in a hushed whisper.

James grinned his stupid grin. "Well, what do you think I'm doing here?" Lily glared at him. "Alright. Alright. I came simply to enjoy the fresh air with my mum, and she's somewhere in the muggle streets, shopping, so that buys me a couple of hours of free time. And when I saw you, I mean, what luck it is to see you! I had to come in and say hello, right? So, I came." he explained.

"Yes. Hello, Potter." said Lily curtly, wondering what he was going to do next.

James was actually dripping on the wooden floor of the coffee shop, but he looked thoroughly happy about the fact that he was drenched in rainwater.

Before she could stop herself, she asked, "Didn't you bring an umbrella with you?"

James brought his hand to his face and wiped the rain from his dripping nose. "No, I didn't. Well, my mum forgot to give me an umbrella when she left me, and that was when the rain came harder. Well, luckily I saw you, right?" He smiled at Lily, a genuine smile.

Lily couldn't help but smile back.

"So, is there something I can drink around here?" asked James, who was reaching over to the plate of muffins and took one in his hands and started munching on it.

Lily stood up. "Well, I'll order you something warm. But know that I'm only doing that because I'm taking pity on you, and you'll have to pay me back for this." she said, and walked over to the counter and ordered a hot chocolate for the boy, and then she sat back down.

"Has your OWL grades come back yet?" asked James.

That was the thing that Lily didn't like to discuss, especially with Potter, because she was nervous about her grades and Potter never was. His was gifted in that area, that he rarely handed in a piece of homework, but his brain worked very good.

Lily took another sip and shook her head.

"And? How well do you think you did?" he asked.

Lily lied back on the chair and groaned. "I don't know. I don't know. And I'm awfully scared that I won't get enough grades to become a healer."

"You want to be a healer?" asked James, his eyebrows raised. This was the first sign that Lily had given him, a sign that she ever wanted to have a full and heartfelt conversation with him. He wasn't going to give it up, actually, he felt a little giddy inside.

"Oh, I'm not really sure." said Lily, raising her head and looking at him through her strands of dark red hair. "But I think it's a very good option. I grew up going to muggle doctors, and they're very good, but they're not healers. They save lives, yes, but they don't really save people of pain."

James listen intently. "And you want to save people from pain?" He asked.

"As much as I can, yes." replied Lily, nodding, and glaring at James. She had no idea why she was glaring at him.

James opened his mouth to speak but before he could, a cup of warm something was brought up to him. "Thank you," he smiled up at the waitress, and he added a wink with it. The waitress ignored him. Both she and Lily rolled their eyes at James. James looked hurt, but Lily doubted that he was.

"So, what have you got me?" asked James. Then he bent down and smelled the drink. "Ah, hot chocolate. Perfect, just what I needed."

"Remember, you need to pay me back for it." said Lily, almost too quickly. Which made her blush.

James rolled his eyes. "Yes, yes. Keep your hair on. I'm pretty sure that I have muggle money stowed somewhere."

Lily wasn't altogether reassured, but she decided not to continue the subject.

She watched as James gulped down the hot chocolate, and suddenly he stopped, looking at the inside of the cup with utter delight.

"What is it?" asked Lily, her eyebrows knitted together.

James' face broke into a huge grin. "Nothing. Don't you worry, sweet Evan. I just found something amazing." "What is it?" asked Lily, peering over at him, curious. That is, until Potter showed her his cup, and inside, floated a couple of white cubes. "Marshmallows!" cried James happily, pointing to the inside of his cup.

Lily slapped him on the shoulder, and then started to laugh. And so did James.

They didn't stop until the other customers started to stare.

James took another large gulp of the hot chocolate and set the mug down. And suddenly, he started to hiccup violently.

Lily started to laugh again, and she didn't care that the rest of the shop was staring at them.

For the rest of the hour they talked about nothing and everything, while James hiccuped. And in the end, James had no intention of stopping, and Lily thought that James wasn't so bad after all. Not bad at all, just, never been able to grow up as quick as she had. But she could hardly blame him.

And five years later when the two of them were walking down the streets of London, arm in arm, and see that coffee shop, Lily stopped. "Did you know that in that coffee shop when I decided that you weren't so bad?"

"Oh, is that so?" asked James, looking down at his fiancé.

"Yes." replied Lily, smiling up at him. "And you were an excellent hiccup-er?"

James smiled and looked up at the windows and the signs pasted on the window of the coffee shop. "The only thing that I remember is that I saw a beautiful girl that gave me a refreshing cup of hot chocolate. And I realised that I loved you. My first love, and my last." He glanced down and kissed her on the forehead. And he looked at her, as if she was the only beautiful thing in the world, in his world.


	3. spill your colours

**A/N: Written for:**

 **Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry (Challenges & Assignments)**

 **Assignment 2 - Performing Arts - task: write an actor/actress au**

 **Days of the Month - Single Women's Working Day - Write about a single woman's day at work.**

 **Song Lyrics Challenge - Round Two: 19. It makes the truth even more incomprehensible.**

 **Piñata Challenge - Medium: Romance**

 **HPFC**

 **Disney Character Challenge/Competition - Faline: write a romantic pairing of your choice.**

 **The Ultimate Doctor Who Challenge/Competition - Amy Pond: Write about Lily Evans.**

 **Choose-Your-Wand Challenge - Dragon Heartstring.**

* * *

 **iii. spill your colours**

Her pale hands reached for the diamond necklace and she strung it around her neck, the hand covered in makeup dust. Someone opened the door of the room and she turned to look at him, her eyebrows raised.

"Miss, Miss Evans," the mousy little man said, his voice quivering slightly. She pitied him, he had gotten a lot of heat from his superiors that they were going to replace him, she had came to see them once, to ask for him to stay, she didn't think that her plea had any use at all. "You're on in one minute."

She nodded, and he walked out of the room.

Lily checked her robe once again, and patted them down. They were a colour of dark red, almost like dried blood, and they matched her hair perfectly. And Lily hated it. She never told anyone about how she hated her costume, she felt that she was the living embodiment of blood.

Grabbing her wand from the table, she swept out of the room, her robes billowing behind her.

 _"Bow to us, Boy King. You know nothing of this world. We do."_ spat Lily, _"And you also do not know the difference between friend and enemy."_

Opposite her, Owen, the wizard playing the muggle king Arthur, opened his mouth and roared, _"I do not know, Red Priestess?! I think, it is you who do not know. You serve no one but power, and you will kill innocents by the thousands to achieve your means!"_

 _"And you wouldn't?"_ replied Lily. Then she raised her wand and pointed it to the sky in which golden sparks flew from the end.

Lily was happy that her scene was so short. She wasn't a main character but she never really enjoyed acting as the red woman, but that was the closest she could get after graduating the SFDA. She actually did quite well, most don't even get a speaking part.

Adjusting her hair and robes once more, she strode out towards the screaming and cheering bows and took a bow with the other actors and actress. And it went on for two minutes.

After Lily had changed into her regular clothes, she was just about to tie her hair back until there was a kurt nock on her door.

Lily stopped and her arms fell down to her waist. She wondered who it was. At this time no one while come but fans and audiences, but she never had them. Then she decided that she might as well give it a chance.

Lily crossed over to the door and opened it.

"Hi," she greeted, a little confused as to what the man was doing there.

He was tall, around a head taller than Lily, who was already very tall on her own. And he had a mop of messy brown hair and a pair of chunky square glasses on his nose, which was shielding a pair of warm brown eyes.

"Hi," he repeated, leaning on the doorframe and smirking, "I think you've probably forgotten who I am. It's okay, we never really talked. I'm James Potter, from Hogwarts. Remember me, Evans?"

 _James Potter..._

The name sounded familiar but she couldn't exactly place it.

Then Lily looked up at him once again, and then it clicked. The hair that his fingers would always thread through and the glasses he sometimes forget to wear. "Potter! What are you doing here?"

"I saw you." stated James, smiling softly and looking down at her. "And you were brilliant."

Lily blushed scarlet.

"And I really wanted you to have these," he reached over from behind his back and produced a bouquet of flowers from his back and Lily took it. It was Lilies.

James waited for her to give an response.

"Thank you," whispered Lily. This was the first time in weeks that she had ever had someone from the audience to come up to her and say that she had done a good job with flowers along with it.

"And I also wanted to ask if you have anything planned for the rest of the day." said James, scrutinising her.

Lily shook her head.

The anxious look on his face disappeared and his lips turned upwards to a smile. "Good. I'll be waiting outside for you then," said James, and he turned towards the exit but turned around once more. "If that's quite alright with you?" He asked awkwardly.

Lily cracked a smile. "Yes of course."

James grinned and walked out of the room and down the hallway to the exit, and Lily closed the door behind him. Ten minutes later, she found him waiting by the backdoor of the theatre. The moment that James saw her, he broke into a huge grin, and they walked onto the streets of London.

They were walking in silence for a few minutes until James lead her into a bar called _The King George._

A lot of muggles were already in the dark and dingy bar, and music was coming from the ceiling. Lily had no idea where the speakers were. Lily looked around, wondering where James and her was going to sit, but he continued walking towards the end of the bar.

"Where are we going?" asked Lily, trying not to sound too needy of lunch.

James stopped walking and turned around and said, "Well, you might've been performing here for a few weeks, but I know all the places to have a good time around here."

Lily cocked her head, wondering what he was going with this.

They walked over to the 'Staff Only' door and Lily waited as James nocked on the door seven times. It was getting a little tedious. Of course, that was only until the door opened and James walked through, Lily following him.

She felt a huge flood of relief as she saw the room that she was in.

It was a small room, but it was identical to the room that they just crossed through. And it was packed with witches and wizards. She actually saw one of the stage crews drinking a bottle of firewhiskey.

"Wow. I can't believe no one told me about this place," said Lily.

James chuckled and lead Lily to the right corner of the room, and they sat down and ordered. While they waited for the food to come, they talked, like old friends.

"So how did you recognise me up there?" asked Lily.

James laughed. "Well, really? You think I wouldn't have recognised you? The moment that I saw your hair, I knew it was you. And you were really good, I think it's a shame that you weren't cast as any of the leading roles."

"Yeah, but you're just saying that," said Lily, blushing and refusing to make eye contact with him.

James shook his head furiously. "No, no, I'm not just saying that. I thought that you were making a mistake when transferring from Hogwarts to the School of Dramatic Arts, but you were amazing."

"Thank you, James," said Lily, smiling softly.

Looking up, she asked, "So, what have you been doing these years?"

"Well," replied James, threading his fingers from his hair like he used to do in school, "I haven't done as good as you though, I'm a curse-breaker working for Gringotts." This sparked an interest in Lily.

"What's that like?" she asked.

James cocked his head, hummed slightly and said, "It's not the dream job, but my dream job is not having any job but still being able to bring in the gold. Anyway, all I do most of the time is travel from country to country and doing whatever the bosses tell me to."

"And is the job dangerous?" continued Lily, she still had a lot of unanswered questions, since she had only worked one job all the while.

"Sometimes. I had a few run-in with dragons but I got away. Thankfully." said James. "But I have some questions of my own for you, Evans. How was the Academy like?"

A house elf came, his tiny head bobbing as he levitated their food and onto their table.

"Dramatic," said Lily, pulling her plate towards her. James laughed at this remark. "I honestly rather have been finishing my last years in Hogwarts. The lessons were-"

"No, I don't want to talk about the lessons," said James, waving away the rest of her sentence. "How was the students. What have you been up to? Do you have any future plans?"

"Apart from Merlin, I haven't really been doing anything. And Well, I do have a plan, but I don't really think that they will come to anyway." replied Lily, stuffing her mouth with salad.

James' spoon fell on his plate. "What are these plans?"

Lily, too, stopped eating. "Well, I presume you remember that I'm a muggleborn, so I grew up surrounded by muggle culture. And the muggle culture includes movies. And wizards have been a little lax about that part of culture. The only movies made by muggles are school projects run by half-bloods and muggleborns, and I really think that the wider wizarding community should be introduced to this too."

"What are movies?" asked James.

Lily laughed. James couldn't help but to stare intently as she laughed, because that was the most beautiful smile he had ever seen.

"And that is exactly why I made my plan!" exclaimed Lily, still smiling. "Well, movies are just pictures, just a few hours longer, they tell a story using photographs rather than words."

James still looked very confused.

"Tell you what, this evening, I'm going to take you to see a muggle movie, right after we finish this lunch. My character is dead for the rest of the play, so while they're grinding through their lines, I'll be going to see the newest muggle movie in town." said Lily.

James smiled widely and nodded. "I would like that very much."

The movie that Lily took him to was a rerun of The Shining. And Lily had laughed herself silly when James screamed and thought that in turn, he would be chased by an axe. It took a long time to calm him down.

By the time that they had finished, it was time for dinner, so James decided to walk Lily back to her apartment.

"I never really understood why you wanted to be an actress." stated James, his hands in his pockets and walked beside Lily. "But now I kind of do. But still, there's something that I can't get my head around."

"And what is that?" asked Lily, turning to look up at him.

"How can you possibly enjoy not being yourself for most of the day, wearing a mask all the time, aren't you afraid?" He didn't finish the question but Lily already knew what he was going to ask. Too many times has she seen her colleagues getting asked the same questions. Their answers are all the same.

But she wasn't sure how she should answer, she never had to.

"Well, I love books, and their just stories. And wouldn't it be wonderful to live in those stories." said Lily.

James couldn't help but smile. Lily was very nerdy, and it was impossibly endearing to him.

"What?" asked Lily.

James couldn't help chuckle. "Nothing, but just that thank you for being yourself with me. You know, you can always spill your colours when you're around me, because they are beautiful."

Lily couldn't help but smile but blush.

Before James climbed into his bed that night, a owl arrived with a letter from Lily, and he couldn't help reading them again and again and again before closing his eyes.

 _Hey, James. I really enjoyed the day with you, so I hope same time,_ _tomorrow? Can't wait. - Lily._


End file.
